As a reminder from the first article on Autonomy, Ryan and Deci’s popular Self Determination Theory (SDT) posits that humans are inherently oriented toward growth and are motivated to develop their potential when their needs of Autonomy, Belonging, and Competence are satisfied.(7) When these needs are thwarted, people experience ill-being and a lack of motivation. If you are a performer who wants to reach your full potential or a teacher who is helping your students reach theirs, these needs cannot be ignored.
Competence and thriving are integrally connected: when people don’t see themselves as capable or their actions as ineffectual, they aren’t happy and they are reluctant to take on opportunities that would promote their growth and develop their potential.(10)
What is competence?
On the surface, competence might seem fixed or quantifiable - having a degree of expertise in something. In SDT, however, competence is defined more expansively. Competence is the capacity of the individual to interact with their environment effectively.(7) This is an ongoing, dynamic process. A musician may have the skills necessary to compete in a particular competition but they may not competently manage the competition experience.
Perhaps that is one reason why performance anxiety is so prevalent. There is a tendency to be focused on building technical expertise and artistic expression and not give sufficient attention to building overall competence. This would most certainly include building the mental skills needed to pull off performance demands under stress. It would include training on how to pivot or adjust when things go awry. It might even involve extramusical skills such as verbal communication on stage, leadership, and logistical planning.
Training our ability to competently manage the dynamic nature of performance is instrumental in building self-efficacy. And self-efficacy is crucial to motivation. If we believe in ourselves and our abilities, we are motivated to go after challenges.(1)
Optimal challenge
Our psychological need for competence is not satisfied when we are not sufficiently challenged. (7) If we don’t involve ourselves in activities that fail to stretch us in some way, our motivation is likely to drop. On the other hand, if the scale is weighted toward too much challenge, we are overwhelmed and this may be even more demotivating.
So competence involves continual engagement in a process of stretching our capacity to act effectively with situations that are optimally challenging. There is no end point to competence - it is the continual process of “getting better.”(11)
Growth mindset
Research suggests that it is this progression towards a goal that is a better predictor of positivity and motivation than completing the goal itself.(11) Said another way, building mastery appears to be more important than demonstrating skill when it comes to motivation. And this is why it is important to have a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset. Those who have a fixed mindset avoid challenges. They believe that their abilities are predetermined and so there is limited control to be had over their development. On the other hand, people with a growth mindset believe their efforts and persistence toward mastery will pay off.(4) They are accepting of mistakes and use failure as an opportunity to learn. This brings resilience which helps them bounce back from setbacks and inspires continued growth.
Satisfying “growth-related competence” has been shown to affect people’s volition and their perceived locus of control.(11) That is, people who actively engage in mastery-building with a growth mindset believe in their capability to improve, which empowers them to make their own, freely chosen decisions that propel them forward on their mastery journey. This exertion of will, in turn, influences whether motivation is extrinsic (externally controlled) or intrinsic (internally valued), with the latter being a far more enduring form of motivation. Competence is thus intertwined with our other psychological need for autonomy.
Internal and external motivators
Although internally generated forms of motivation tend to be the most sustainable, external motivators can still play an important role in motivating a performer. For example, motivation to achieve standards set externally through auditions, competitions, or by teachers can act as a kind of testing ground for a performer’s competence. Because striving for excellence is a value for the performer, these external motivators can be coopted into that value system as well if they are considered by the performer to be valuable and worthwhile investments in that pursuit of excellence.(9) In this way, external and internal motivators may work together to increase perceived competence.
Competence facilitates flow
Feelings of competence are also essential to the experience of flow - that coveted state where a performer feels completely engrossed in the enjoyment and oneness with an activity that is both optimally challenging and performed with a sense of ease. The confidence that accompanies a flow state can only happen when the performer feels equipped to handle the performance. A recent study of music conservatory students found that perceptions of competence were the strongest predictor of their experience of flow.(8)
How do we build competence?
1. Feedback
We’ve talked about competence as being in a continual state of change as we improve. We don’t know we are getting better, however, unless we have some kind of feedback. Our environment provides this through a mutual interchange of information. We receive feedback, and this feedback influences how we respond and develop which, in turn, influences our environment.
Performance feedback comes from within ourselves and from others. In our own internal feedback systems, we create a mental model of our ideal of performance which can be based on previous experiences, recordings, and people whose opinions matter to us. This creates the foundation for developing rehearsal and performance goals. We test our competence daily in our rehearsal time or on a larger time scale by planning specific performance events like recitals or competitions to measure longer-term progress.
Inherent in feedback is comparison - comparing our performance with an ideal, and comparing past performance with current performance.(9) We also gauge competence by comparing ourselves with others. This comparison gives us the information needed to create strategies for building competence.
More direct feedback comes from other people. Teachers, mentors, and professional colleagues are important sources of feedback with negative feedback signaling a level of incompetence and positive feedback confirming competence.(4) Teachers are especially positioned to provide feedback that builds an authentic sense of competence through directly involving their students in their music learning, which is also supportive of their autonomy needs.(6) They can also point out how a student’s specific practice strategies connect to the improvements they are seeing.(5) There are many others in multiple settings such as audience members, parents of students, students, and community members, who also influence our perceptions of competence.
2. Structure and guidance
We build competence when we have clear goals that leave little room for ambiguity. Proximal (short-term) goals have been shown to build more competence than long-term ones.(1) Goals that are too far ahead in the future don’t provide adequate focus and direction for what we should be doing right now.
Instruction or direction from others needs to be explicit. Most of us are familiar with how disconcerting it is to be thrust into a situation in which we don’t really know what is expected of us, or be given vague instructions by our teachers such as “be more expressive here” or “make the recap more triumphant.”
3. Toleration of mistakes
Individuals need to be optimally challenged to grow and part of the process of growth is failing and learning from failures.(4) Performers may avoid challenging situations if they fear they will be criticized or berated for mistakes.(9) As teachers we can create a climate that embraces failure as a necessary part of learning and skill-building. As performers, we can make sure we have people in our corner to support and encourage us when we falter.
Balancing the ABCs of motivation
We will experience the greatest boost to our motivation when all three of our psychological needs - autonomy, belonging, and competence - are in balance with each other. Frequently, there is an imbalance between autonomy and competence.(6) A student’s need for competence can be satisfied by clear structure and specific instructions from their teacher, but a teacher must also consider autonomy needs. They may, for example, take the time to elicit ideas from their student about what being more expressive in a particular passage would mean to them. They allow their student to choose performance opportunities and how they might structure their practice.
When we notice motivation flagging in ourselves or our students, we are guaranteed to find that one or more of the ABCs of motivation are being neglected. Finding ways to promote autonomy, belonging, and competence regularly fuels the flames of motivation leading to satisfying and sustainable lives as musicians.
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1.Bandura, A., & Schnuk, D.H. (1981). Cultivating competence, self-efficacy and intrinsic interest through proximal self-motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 586-598.
2.Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset : the new psychology of success / Carol S. Dweck. (Ballantine Books trade pbk. ed.). Ballantine Books.
3.Evans, P., & Liu, M. Y. (2019). Psychological Needs and Motivational Outcomes in a High School Orchestra Program. Journal of Research in Music Education, 67(1), 83–105. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022429418812769
4.Legault, L. (2020). Need for Competence, The. In Crossref (pp. 3128–3129). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1123
5. Papageorgi I., Creech A., Potter P., et al. (2009). Perceptions and predictions of expertise in advanced musical learners. Psychology of Music, 38, 31-66. doi: 10.1177/0305735609336044
6.Renwick, J. M., & Reeve, J. (2012). Supporting Motivation in Music Education. In The Oxford Handbook of Music Education, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199730810.013.0009_update_001
7.Ryan R. M. & Deci E. L. Self-Determination Theory. (2017), Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness; Guilford: New York.
8.Valenzuela, R., Codina, N., & Pestana, J. V. (2018). Self-determination theory applied to flow in conservatoire music practice: The roles of perceived autonomy and competence, and autonomous and controlled motivation. Psychology of Music, 46(1), 33–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735617694502
9.Valenzuela, R., Codina, N., & Pestana, J. V. (2020). Gender-Differences in Conservatoire Music Practice Maladjustment. Can Contextual Professional Goals and Context-Derived Psychological Needs Satisfaction Account for Amotivation Variations? PloS one 15.5 (2020): e0232711–e0232711.
10.Vallerand R. J. & Reid G. (1984). On the causal effects of perceived competence on intrinsic motivation: A test of cognitive evaluation theory. J Sport Psychol, 6, 94-102. doi: 10.1123/jsp.6.1.94
11.Yu, Shi et al. “Doing Well vs. Doing Better: Preliminary Evidence for the Differentiation of the ‘Static’ and ‘Incremental’ Aspects of the Need for Competence.” Journal of Happiness Studies 23.3 (2022): 1121–1141.
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